Baristas Suffer Injuries on the Job

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – We’ve all heard about tennis elbow, but what about “barista” elbow?

Many coffee-making baristas are being plagued from making coffee all day. Physical therapist Phaeleau Cunneen says there’s a lot of lifting for gallons of milk.

They make at least 100 cups a day, causing more injury.

“The baristas get wrist injuries, but it’s more commonly the elbow injury from just having to put the espresso machine up into the machine and twisting it,” says Cunneen.

Cunneen says that his advice is for baristas to take a coffee break, and ask their bosses to let them work the register or food counter once in a while to break the sometimes eight hours of repetitive motion.